


Why's It Always Crystals?

by lxaah11



Category: Inhumans (TV 2017), Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2020-05-16 01:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19308274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lxaah11/pseuds/lxaah11
Summary: When a red signal appears in the galaxy next to the Milky Way, Starfleet wants answers, and fast. Discovery jumps as soon as possible and all they find is an uninhabited planet that doesn't seem like anything special, that is until they look closer. With the material off the planet interfering with Discovery's instruments, Pike and Burnham must beam down to investigate why the signal brought them here. Things don't go to plan and Pike ends up in trouble (surprise, surprise) and things happen that nobody have ever expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multichapter fic, I hope you enjoy and if anyone has any suggestions - whether it's about improving my writing or just that you've noticed a typo I've missed - please let me know. :)

When a red signal had appeared above a small, uninhabited planet in the Greater Magellanic Cloud it was imperative Discovery got there as soon as possible. The dwarf galaxy did, after all, orbit the Milky Way, and a signal that close to Earth understandably had the higher-ups on guard. The problem with that was, they were constantly pushing for answers that Discovery didn’t yet have. The rock that made up the planet interfered with their instruments, the only data they had been able to collect was the composition of the atmosphere - a slightly higher concentration of nitrogen than Earth but still able to support life. The most recent breakthrough had come through cameras showing caves and shafts that appeared to be part of an underground tunnel system.

 

Engineering had rigged up a sensor that could take the readings they needed and, hopefully, transmit them up to Discovery. The only issue was that an away team had to go down into the miles of unmapped tunnels in order to get said readings. Captain Pike had, of course, immediately volunteered and, despite Saru voicing concerns, insisted that if he could navigate his way through Death Valley without a map then underground tunnels were nothing. As usual, when dropping little snippets of his past, he didn’t elaborate any further but the bridge didn’t need him to, to see that he wasn’t changing his mind. As for Michael, with the mission being of a scientific nature, it was only logical that she be the other half of the away team, the fact that she was one of the people immune to Pike’s charm and was the least likely to let him get away with his typical self-sacrificing heroics was just a bonus.

 

With packs full of non-perishable food, they had beamed down near one of the many caves, it had been picked at random - the lack of data about the planet had meant they had no idea where to start. Upon first glance, the cave seemed to be nothing more than a huge chamber and not, in fact, part of the wider system. However, upon closer inspection, they found a narrow crack in the back wall that was just wide enough for them to squeeze through. On the other side, all they found was a nondescript corridor that extended off in blackness and little indication as to why the signal had appeared here. It seemed that the only way to get the answers they were looking for, was to venture deeper into the maze, which was easier said than done. The earlier crevice was just the start, multiple times they had to get down on their hands and knees and crawl through impossibly small spaces or climb up a rocky slope. It was slow going and very few words were exchanged, only an occasional check with the other to see how they were doing. Talking only served to make the claustrophobic space seem even more unnerving than it already was, as whatever was said got repeated back at you ten different times from ten different directions. They hadn’t been in the tunnel long before the sensor suddenly started going wild, when they examined their surroundings they saw nothing different about the section they were in, compared to the one they had just left. Nothing to explain this sudden change.

 

“Sir, the energy readings we’re getting are off the charts.” Tilly’s disembodied voice rang out, echoing off the tunnel walls.

 

“Any chance of pinpointing the source, Ensign?”

 

“No, sir. It seems to be coming from all around you, I’ve never seen anything like it.” A pause. “Well, that’s not entirely true. There was this one time, back in the academy, when a few of us were messing around in a lab and one of the experiments went wrong. Like, not a little bit wrong, I mean really wrong. I have no idea how the Admiralty never found out,” Tilly trailed off, realising who she was talking to. “Not that anyone got hurt, no one at all. The lab was just out of action for a few weeks, but it was barely used anyway and... I’ll just stop talking now.”

 

Burnham and Pike shared a fond look, the corners of their mouths slightly upturned. “Keep us updated, Ensign.”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

They continued on, phasers drawn and set to stun, only putting them away when they came across yet another obstacle they had to clamber over. The tunnel was only illuminated by the small lights attached to the shoulders of their EV suits, the focused beams left shadows in their periphery, causing the pair to grip their phasers that little bit tighter. With Discovery also unable to come up with an explanation as to what was happening, they had little choice but to continue on and hope that they stumble upon whatever was causing these unprecedented readings.

 

After what seemed like an hour of clambering, squeezing and grazed palms and knees they finally came across the first rays of non-artificial light they had seen since first entering the underground. It came from further down the tunnel and filled them with the hope that they had finally found something. As they neared the light, they quickly deflated. The tunnel opened out into a much larger chamber, the light filtering in through the great crevices in the ceiling. To the left the narrow path continued on, hugging the wall, they could see it entering, by way of yet another tunnel, into the wall on the far side. However, the rest of the ground was marred with fissures that spanned the length of the chamber that, when they peered down into the nearest one, they couldn’t see the bottom of. Luckily for them, the path ahead of them was flat and the next 30 minutes of their trek, for that would be how long it would take to reach the other side, would be absent of any clambering or crawling. For that Pike was thankful, his age was showing in the form of a backache caused by the repeated hunching over and, loath to admit it, he was almost ready to suggest to Burnham that they take a short break.

 

Wanting to find one of the other openings they had seen on the surface sooner rather than later, Pike took point, he was beginning to think that they wouldn’t find the answers they were looking for any time soon. After reaching what seemed to be the halfway point, Michael began to voice these same thoughts. “Sir, the next exit we come across, I believe we should leave. This doesn’t seem to be the best use of time, we’re only ending up with more questions and no answers.”

 

“I was just thinking the same thing, but I was just hoping we’d find something first, something to make this worthwhile. Stop high command breathing down our necks for a bit.” He glanced back at Michael, a resigned smile on his face.

 

“So was I, sir, but the logical course of action would be to return to Discovery and get the data we’ve collected analysed so we’ll have more information for when we come down next time, instead of just wandering aimlessly, hoping to stumble across something. We can just enter the caves at the same point that we leave.”

 

“You’re absolutely right Commander, I’ll comm up and- “

 

It was at that moment that the ground crumbled away under his feet. The spot he had placed his foot near the edge slid sideways into the chasm, taking him with it.  Everything happened so quickly, neither Chris nor Michael could do anything to stop it. The last thing he heard as he fell down was Michael’s desperate “CAPTAIN!” echoing after him. 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long. I hated most of what I was actually writing I got so stuck, I will never just abandon something though, so I've tried to get something down. It's not perfect but it's something.
> 
> If it helps I have learned from doing this that if I ever do another multi chapter fic that I need to finish it before I start posting - when I posted the first chapter I was just so excited to get it out there that I didn't think about the time I'd have to carry on so there wasn't a massive gap like there has been.
> 
> As always, hope you enjoy and if there's any constructive criticism - go for it - I'm always open to improving.

Chris’ breath forcefully left his body as he slammed into the crevice wall with a loud crack, he had only been falling for a few seconds but he had already resigned himself to the world of pain he just knew he’d find himself in when he hit the bottom. At least he hoped that was what awaited him. The only other alternative he could imagine is dying on impact and, after everything he’d managed to live through, he really didn’t want the thing that killed him to be him losing his damn footing. He could still hear Burnham’s panicked voice echoing all around him, following him down into the darkness, yet he couldn’t quite process exactly what it was she was saying. The adrenaline coursing through his veins had forced his brain to filter out any extraneous sounds and, apparently, Michael fell under that remit. Not that it mattered anyway, he hadn’t yet been able to get his breath back and it felt like he wouldn’t for a while, so he wouldn’t have had a chance in hell of answering her. 

The crack he had fallen down was narrow enough that once he had hit the wall he stayed against it, his back scraping along the jagged surface of the wall taking the skin off as he fell. After a few more moments of free fall he, strangely enough, felt himself slowing down. Don’t get him wrong, he still felt like he had left his stomach up at the top with Burnham and saw no sign of the bottom of this pit, but he was definitely not falling as fast as he had been. The reason for this was not immediately clear if anything it had only become more baffling, as the wall he was sliding down appeared to smooth out the further down he went. It was only when he reached the bottom that he figured it out. The wall, which had been completely vertical when he first started falling, in fact, started sloping out near the bottom and continued to do so until it had become perfectly horizontal. It reminded him of an old playground ride he had only ever seen pictures of - a drop slide, he believed it was called. Affectionately nicknamed a ‘death slide’, and after what he had just experienced he could definitely see why. However, unlike those rides, this version did not have a long flat section for him to decelerate and, instead, stopped rather abruptly. He catapulted off the end and was sent skipping like a stone across the lake of water that had caused this natural phenomenon, before plunging into its icy depths.

With his lungs begging for the oxygen that they had been deprived of, he kicked towards the surface and found that the water was only a few feet deeper than he was tall. He swam over to the opening that he was shot out of, as he moved closer the water became shallower, allowing him to stand with his shoulders above the water as he called up to Michael, who was still shouting down after him.

“I’m OK. Nothing broken at least.” He added with a chuckle.

“Sir?” A sigh of relief. “What’s down there? Can you see a way back up?”

Miraculously, the lights on his EV suit still worked. He observed the new cave that surrounded him, it didn’t look too different from the others he had just left. All he could see was a narrow tunnel branching off, carrying a ravine further into the rock, but nothing that indicated a way of returning to Burnham. He relayed this information back to her, hoping she’d be able to come up with a solution but also fully prepared to order her to carry on with the mission without him as he tried to make his own way to the surface.

“Captain, I have rappelling gear in my pack but the only anchor point up here doesn’t seem to be strong enough to support your weight, it will just crumble.”

“It’s ok Burnham, you carry on along the path. I’ll stay down here and- “

“With all due respect Captain,” Burnham interrupted showing no said respect, “I believe it best we stick together. We still don’t know anything about this energy source and these tunnels are treacherous, if we split up and one of us gets in danger then it could be lethal.”

Knowing she had a point, but not seeing another way Pike could only respond, “Well then, what would you suggest Commander?”

“The anchor is strong enough to support me, so I’ll make my way down to you-”

“No, Michael-”, Pike tried to interrupt when he realised what she was saying.

“-and we’ll carry on through the tunnel down there.”

“Michael, if you stay up there we know you can get out, you come down here and that is no longer the case. I wish there was another way but you have to leave me, that’s an order.”

There was a pause before Burnham’s voice echoed down to him again, “...I’m already on my way down sir.”

Pike could only sigh and contemplate how he really needed to start being less lenient with his officers, as it seemed to be a running theme that few of them listened to him in situations like this. He hopes that Burnham and Number One never meet, if they did he might as well resign his commission straight away, they would be unstoppable.

As he waited for Michael to reach him, he decided to try and scope out the tunnel that was now their only hope for escape. It was located at the point in the cave where the water was shallowest, only reaching his ankles, and was smaller than it seemed at first glance, just wider than himself and as tall as his waist, he could only cringe at the incoming pain that his back will inevitably feel. There was a scrape of boots over rock followed by a quiet splash as Burnham exited the crag and slipped into the water, she waded towards him and peered over his shoulder. Not even her years of living on Vulcan could help her hide the disgruntled sigh upon seeing the confined space they’d spend the next who knows how long making their way through. They shared a look before Chris, hopefully for the last time on this seemingly endless expedition, got down on his hands and knees and made his way into the tunnel with Michael joining him soon after. Only the sound of their breathing and the sloshing of the water, which wasn’t getting any shallower, could be heard - they both just wanted to get out and were too focused to try and attempt a meaningless conversation. For the first time since entering the caves they seemed to have caught a break, the tunnel seemed to be on a slightly upward trajectory and was hopefully taking them towards the surface. 

They’d been in the water for long enough that the cold had started to permeate through the suits thermal regulation system when they finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. He crawled with a renewed vigour, Michael following close behind, both eager to get back to Discovery or out of the caves at the very least. As he got closer the sound of running water began to echo around them, getting louder as they got closer until they finally reached the end. 

Pike once again found himself short of breath as he reached forward to continue to crawl and instead found that the ground was no longer where he expected and instead rapidly steepened to form another pool that he promptly, and rather ungracefully, fell into. Except this time the water was shallower than he was tall, it was only by sheer dumb luck that he didn’t whack his head on the rock below and instead landed flat on his back, adding to the already long list of reasons he isn’t going to be able to move tomorrow. He sat up, spluttering as he broke the surface only to be greeted with Michael chuckling as she contorted herself so she could enter feet first, having learnt from his mistake. Chris could only self-deprecatingly smile at her as she offered her hand to help him up, which he gratefully accepted. 

Having recovered from his unexpected swim, he was finally able to take in their new surroundings and he very quickly found the source of the light. His heart sank. A beam of light from the surface entered yet another cave through a gap in the ceiling, after which it bounced off the multitude of crystals that lined the edge of the pool, illuminating the darkness. Both Pike and Burnham looked around in awe, so distracted that they both startled when Tilly’s voice disturbed the quiet they had been in for what must have been hours.

“Captain, Michael? I don’t know what you just did but the readings we’re getting have just got even larger and I didn’t think that was even possible. Is there anything new around you that looks like it could be the source?”

“We’ve ended up in a cavern full of crystals, Ensign, we’ll take a sample and bring it back to Discovery for further analysis. Can you get a transporter lock on us?”

“Affirmative Captain, we can be ready to beam you out at a moment's notice.” A pause. “Well, maybe a bit more than a moment, we are getting some slight interference - nothing to worry about but it’ll take a bit longer to actually get you out of there.”

“Thank you, Ensign, I’ll let you know when we need to beam out.” Pike replied, “With more than a moment's notice.” He added with a smile.

Burnham started to take some readings from the cave, to look for any sign as to what these crystals were and where they came from. As she did this Pike pulled out a laser cutter and knelt to take a sample, the moment he started cutting through the crystal is when things started going wrong. A white mist started to hiss out from the crystal, quickly beginning to fill the cave. As Pike staggered backwards trying to get away from the mist, Burnham’s scanner started going crazy.

“Captain, the readings I'm getting are showing that this gas is potentially toxic,” Burnham reported as she hit the button to activate her helmet. Pike went to follow suit, only to find that at some point during one of his numerous falls the mechanism had malfunctioned. By this point the mist had already filled over half the cave, it was being emitted faster than it could escape. Pike knew immediately he only had seconds, a minute maximum before there would be no clean air left to breathe.

Shaking his head at Burnham to try and convey his predicament he commed up to Discovery, “Ensign, I know I promised a moment’s notice but we need to beam out of here now.” He tried to keep his voice level but inside he was panicking. He had gotten out of so many sticky situations, come back after being hurt so many times but right now he couldn’t see a way out.

“We’re trying Captain but the interference has dramatically increased, we need more time.”

Pike didn’t reply.

The mist had filled the cave. Pike was holding his breath for as long as possible trying to give the Discovery crew as long as possible to get them out of there. But his lungs were burning. He couldn’t hold on much longer. Distantly he could hear a panicked Burnham communicating with Tilly, trying to get them out of here.

“Beam us up! We need to get out of here now, beam us - “

Pike breathed in.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's a little update, bit shorter than the others (apparently that's possible :o ) but it's more from Burnham's POV. Hope you enjoy!

It took several seconds for Michael to realise that the scream echoing throughout the cave was her own. She could only look on in horror as a dark crust began to form around the Captain, spreading across his body, his movements were sluggish as he reached out to try and stop her from getting any closer.

“Beam us up, beam us up, beam us up!”

Michael was unable to keep the terror out of her voice as she begged Discovery to get them out of there, in the distant hope that they could still save the Captain. After what felt like an age the yearned for ribbons of golden light began to swirl around them both and the distinct whirr of the transporter became louder. However, Michael could only look on with despair as the crust stopped spreading, having finally fully cocooned the Captain. The horrified expression on his face forever immortalised. His hands forever reaching for her.

Michael fell to her knees the moment she rematerialised on Discovery, only vaguely aware of the tears making tracks down her face as she stared vacantly at the face of yet another Captain she had failed in doing her duty for. The Captain, normally so bright and jovial, gone. In his place was a statue, morbidly crafted, as if he had looked upon Medusa herself. Everything he felt in that moment, death imminent, was clear to see. She had never seen him look so vulnerable, the continuous effort he put into being the pillar for the crew to lean on, always strong - gone. Tilly rushed into the room, her endless stream of questions ending abruptly as she took in the scene in front of her, mouth still moving but no sound coming out. Doctor Pollard arrived only moments after, tricorder in hands, pushing past both Tilly and her initial shock to check over both Michael and the Captain. After seeing that Michael was unharmed, at least physically, she turned to see what she could possibly do for Pike.

“ -- Ensign!” The Doctor’s firm, yet not unkind, shout broke through the daze Tilly was in as her head snapped towards the sound. “Talk to Burnham and see if you can get through to her, she seems ok but bring her to sickbay so I can check her over properly. Computer, emergency transport for two.”

Michael’s vacant stare was filled with golden light once again, this time transporting the Captain and the Doctor away, swiftly replaced with Tilly’s shocked face. Triggering the release for the helmet, she knelt down. “Michael, please.” Her voice broke through the fog surrounding Michael, arms coming up to hold her own.

“Tilly...” was all Michael managed to breathe out before the dam broke. She tried to say more but all that came out were sobs, all Tilly could do was hold her as the typically stoic Commander broke down in front of her.

After several moments Michael found she could breathe again, the haze that blanketed her mind finally dispersing. She was up on her feet before Tilly realised what was happening, “I need to get to sickbay, I need to make sure there’s nothing I can do, I-I-I need to go.” Then she was out the door before Tilly could even begin to think to respond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we go, while I was writing Michael did feel kind of OOC, but at the same time I was thinking that, after losing Georgiou and then the whole thing with Lorca, losing another Captain, one that she'd grown to trust, while being helpless to stop it would take it's toll on Burnham, Vulcan upbringing or not.


End file.
